Kuerten, Seles score convincing victories

Sydney: French Open champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil and American Monica Seles, winner of nine career grand slam titles, got the Olympic tennis tournament off to a lightning fast start on Tuesday.

The third-seeded Seles came within one game of registering the first official Olympic whitewash since Suzanne Lenglen at the 1920 Games in Antwerp, overwhelming Katalin Marosi-Aracama of Hungary 6-0, 6-1 in the opening match on centre court.

Kuerten, the second men's seed, lost one more game than Seles but was more efficient by 10 minutes in dispatching wild card Christophe Pognon of Benin 6-1, 6-1 in a startling 38 minutes.

Seles set an impressive target for the rest of the formidable US women's team to match.

US Open and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, the second seed, will close the opening night programme against Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia.

Top-seeded defending champion Lindsay Davenport plays her opening match against Paola Suarez of Argentina on Wednesday.

"It is definitely a Dream Team," Seles said of the US women's squad, which also includes 1999 US Open champion Serena Williams as partner to her sister Venus in the doubles.

"A sweep of the medals is what's expected. We're the top three seeds and we're all playing our best tennis."

Mis-matches were the order of the day under brilliant sunshine at the tennis centre.

Rainer Schuttler of Germany rushed past American Todd Martin, a semi-finalist at the US Open, 6-2, 6-0, to set up a second-round match against Kuerten.

Martin looked helpless against the blistering passing shots Schuttler fired from both wings, but the American may have been less than his best. He had his left wrist strapped by a trainer during the match.

Dominique Van Roost of Belgium continued the day's theme by rushing past Adriana Gersi of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-1, while Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands defeated Argentina's Florencia Labat 6-2, 6-4.

Oremans will meet Seles in the second round.



(c) Reuters Limited.